


The Darkness With You

by opalheart12



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Drama, Fluff, Forbidden Love, Found Family, M/M, Supernatural Elements, Vampire/Werewolf Relationship, Vampires, Werewolves, aggressively requited love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:49:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29721657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalheart12/pseuds/opalheart12
Summary: If you’d told Joe a week ago that he was a werewolf, he might have laughed so hard that his stomach would have hurt. If you’d followed that up by telling him his soulmate was a vampire, sworn enemy of werewolves as far as every piece of consumable media was concerned, he would have asked what kind of drugs you were on so he could stay very, very far from them. But here he was: a werewolf with a vampire for a soulmate. It might be funny if he wasn’t so utterly in love with the vampire in question.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Quynh | Noriko, Booker | Sebastien le Livre/Nile Freeman, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 1
Kudos: 38





	The Darkness With You

**Author's Note:**

> For some reason I couldn’t shake the idea of an Old Guard AU with vampires and werewolves. I might write more to this depending on how it’s received. Hope you all enjoy!

If you’d told Joe a week ago that he was a werewolf, he might have laughed so hard that his stomach would have hurt. If you’d followed that up by telling him his soulmate was a vampire, sworn enemy of werewolves as far as every piece of consumable media was concerned, he would have asked what kind of drugs you were on so he could stay very, very far from them. But here he was: a werewolf with a vampire for a soulmate. It might be funny if he wasn’t so utterly in love with the vampire in question.

“Why wouldn’t you tell me?” Joe croaks out. “How could you know what I-- why wouldn’t you just  _ tell  _ me?” 

It’s midnight and Joe has had a particularly shitty last few days. His muscles still ache so badly his skin hurts. He feels like his joints have all rusted together and no amount of oil would make it better. He feels unbearably hot and an energy he cannot adequately describe courses through his blood so quickly that he feels hyper aware of the thrum of every vein in his body. He’s vomited twice now and it seems possible that there may be a third occurrence. 

The man soaking his forehead with a cold compress winces slightly, his verdigris eyes darting down toward the floor in shame. There’s no excuse, he thinks, but he’ll make a valiant attempt at one anyway. “They would tear us apart, Yusuf,” he begins, his voice cracking slightly as he used Joe’s true name. Aside from family, he was the only other person that did. “Werewolves and vampires have been driven apart from one another for thousands of years now. If any of the Guard found out...I would die the true death and you…” He trails off, his face crumpling as he buries his head into Joe’s stomach to hide his tears. 

Joe sighs, exhaustion filling every part of him. “You wanted to protect me, yeah? Fine, Nicky, I get that. But if you knew what I am...what I have  _ been _ for so long...how could you not tell me? Didn’t you think I deserved to know?”

Nicky swallows audibly as his eyes grow wet. “Yes,  _ hayati _ , you did. And I am so, so sorry for keeping it from you. It was not my story to tell. You must understand. Your father was supposed to be the one to tell you.”

“Why the hell would he be the one to--” Joe’s voice catches in his throat as realization dawns on his face. “Oh, God.”

Nicky says nothing, just holds Joe’s troublingly warm and clammy hand in his. The silence in the room feels so heavy that he wonders if it might crush the two of them to dust right there. If he knew that there was an afterlife in which Joe would join him, he wouldn’t much oppose it. But there isn’t, and Nicky has to face the music here, no matter how much he wishes he didn’t have to. Joe is changing and he needs  _ someone _ there.

“How long have you known?” Joe’s voice is thin, like he’s approached the limits of his patience and understanding. Given how much disdain he has for his father it makes sense. 

Ibrahim al-Kaysani was, according to Joe at least, The Worst Father Ever. He drank like a fish, got angry at the drop of a dime, treated Joe’s mother and younger brother like punching bags, and cheated on his wife constantly. When Joe turned eighteen, he ran away from home and hadn’t gone back once. Luckily his mother and brother did as he did and left too. They lived with Joe’s aunt in Brooklyn, a long way away from Amsterdam.

“Since the first time I laid eyes on you.” Nicky replies, his voice barely louder than a whisper. “Werewolves have a certain smell. I could smell it in your blood. But it was different. There was something  _ else _ there too though what it was evades me even now. But you never transformed, so I thought perhaps I was wrong. Until the night before last. Then I knew.”

Joe closes his eyes tightly as another wave of pain roars through his limbs. He feels like he’s been stretched out beyond belief, and not in the fun way. He curses to himself in slurred Arabic, exhaustion pulling at the edges of his brain cells. He wants to curse at Nicky. He wants to kiss him. He wants to tell him that he is a liar. He wants to hold him. He opens his eyes and sees Nicky peering down at him, worry as plain as day on his face.

“Please forgive me, Yusuf.” Nicky whispers, his hold on Joe’s hand tightening. “I am so sorry. I know I have ruined everything and you likely want nothing more to do with me and--”

“No.” Joe stops him. “ _ No _ , Nicky.”

The other man stares at him as if he’s sprouted five more arms on his body. Joe might have thought the expression on his face was funny if Nicky’s eyes weren’t glassy with unshed tears. That just made his heart hurt unbearably. “What?”

He sighs again. He has a feeling this might be the last time he has the energy to speak for a few hours. “I’m angry that you kept me in the dark about this. I am. But I know your intentions were good,” He pauses to suck down a gulp of air. He’s out of breath. “Just...I just need to rest. We’ll figure out the rest later. But I still love you. I do.”

It’s the last thing he says before he slides back into unconsciousness for the fourth time in two days. Nicky thinks it might be a while before he wakes up again. He decides to take advantage of the time and clean Joe up as best he can. When he cleans him off with a warm soapy towel and dries him off, Joe doesn’t stir once. It isn’t until Nicky is washing his hair that Joe groans in his sleep and his face looks pained. His skin is still too hot and there are goosebumps all over his body. Nicky makes quick work of his hair, running oiled hands through Joe’s curls the best he can without tangling them. 

The apartment they share is a mess. Almost everything is broken. Nicky closes his eyes as he remembers what it was like to have a fully grown werewolf running about the place and slamming into just about everything until he quite literally ran into a brick wall and was knocked unconscious. Joe hadn’t woken up again until he’d started to change back to his human form. Nicky is sure that the raw pain in Joe’s voice as he screamed through the transformation will stay with him as long as he lives.

The night continues to crawl by as Nicky does what he can to straighten up the apartment. He picks Joe up and moves him the short distance to the bedroom they share, hoping that at the very least he might be more comfortable and rested in their bed. His phone vibrates furiously in his pocket as it has been for the past few hours. He hasn’t checked it once.

This time, he knows he must. He’s ignored the problem long enough and he knows that putting it off any longer won’t help him one bit. He tries his best not to be afraid as he sees Andromache’s name flash across the screen. She’s going to be absolutely enraged. That’s the very last thing Nicky or Joe needs.

“Where the fuck have you been, Nicky?” Andromache hisses when he finally decides to bite the bullet and answer. 

“Taking care of Joe,” he replies carefully. “He has been sick these past few days.”

He can see her eyes narrowing hawkishly as if she were right there in front of him. “When did you think you were going to tell me he’s a werewolf?” Her voice is ice cold with fury. Nicky closes his eyes, wincing even though she’s not in front of him and can’t actually do anything to him for the moment. 

He sighs then. The days have been long and so utterly exhausting and terrifying. Maybe it’s the fact that dawn is less than two hours away and he gets tired this close to sunrise anyway. Maybe it’s that seeing Joe in pain and confused has taken all of his life out of him. Whatever it is, it manifests into annoyance as Nicky snaps, “I didn’t. If it were up to me you would know nothing. But  _ you _ are the only one I trust. Booker only cares about Booker and you and I both know he would give me up to the Guard in a nanosecond if it meant nothing would happen to him.”

“Nicky, this is  _ beyond _ dangerous. Do you have any idea the position this puts me in?! I’m going to have to lie to the Guard so they don’t--”

His patience snaps. “This does not concern you, Andromache. It never has.” The other side is silent. Nicky knows she must be stunned, even in her anger and disappointment. He keeps going. “I will protect Yusuf with  _ my _ life. No one else’s.”

“You are my family, Nicky. You have been for almost a millennia. If you don’t think I’ll stick my neck out on the chopping block for you then you don’t know me very well.” Andy replies quietly, the cold fury gone from her voice. “Quynh will take care of the Guard. I’ll deal with Booker. The second Joe is awake you need to bring him to one of the safehouses. I don’t care which one you choose but don’t tell me. The less people who know where the two of you are the better.”

Nicky feels warm gratitude radiating through his chest and a hot, stinging sensation in his eyes. “Andy...I do not know how to thank you.” 

“So, don’t,” she says. “Just stay safe. Please, Nicky.”

“I will.”

He isn’t sure how long Joe will be asleep for but it’s already been four hours. The inky black sky outside is beginning to fade into a deep blue. The sun is coming. Nicky feels more tired than he can remember being in centuries. He wants so badly to sleep but he refuses to as long as Joe is unconscious. He draws the thick blackout curtains in their bedroom and the room is submerged into darkness. The only light comes from the salt lamps on their nightstands. 

Joe is deep asleep in exactly the same position Nicky left him in. He hasn’t moved an inch. When Nicky touches his forehead to make sure his blood hasn’t turned to molten lava yet, he’s delighted to note that the fever is beginning to break. As Nicky gets into the bed beside Joe, he feels dread and fear for the moment Joe will wake up. They’d need to be on the run as soon as possible. It wouldn’t be long before someone from the Guard came to investigate the weird reports of a wolf howling in 1096C. It was a miracle the police hadn’t been called. Nicky had done his best to get their neighbors to believe they’d just adopted a particularly large and rambunctious dog. He didn’t know yet if that would be enough.

“I’m so sorry, Yusuf,” Nicky mumbles as he takes the limp hand of the love of his life. “I put us in this mess. I promise to get us out of it. I will protect you.” He leans down and kisses Joe on his forehead while running a hand over the still damp curls on his head. 

Joe stirs slightly, groaning. His face looks somewhat troubled now and his hand comes to life in Nicky’s. He blinks awake slowly, the way one might in the middle of the night if they’d woken up for no particular reason. “Where am I?” Joe asks blearily, his voice thick with sleep.

Nicky smiles down at him, relief filling him. “In our room. I brought you here not long after you fell asleep. I thought the sofa might be uncomfortable for you.”

Joe hums quietly in response. “Good idea.” 

“We need to leave,” Nicky replies. “It will not be safe here for much longer, you know.” He pulls Joe into his arms, allowing the scent of citrus and mint from his hair to ground him. 

“Later. Sleepy.” Joe’s voice is heavier now, like he’s barely holding onto consciousness. He buries his face in Nicky’s neck and then, for the first time in days, they both sleep soundly, knowing that when they wake up again everything will be a complete and utter shit storm. 

_ That’s alright _ , Nicky thinks as drifts off.  _ We shall weather it together. _

**Author's Note:**

> So what do you think? Do you want more?


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